Huawei has responded to Monday’s reports, alleging it released ‘fake’ reviews for its Mate 10 Pro smartphone, by incentivising users of a private Facebook group to post reviews, before trialing the device.
The Chinese-based company was accused of soliciting fake reviews for a Best Buy listing, from a private Facebook group of 60,000 members.
Reports state Huawei informed group members to leave positive reviews to its Mate 10 Pro Best Buy listing – which is still on preorder in the US – for a chance to become one of the device’s “beta testers”.
Responding to Android Authority, Huawei affirms there is “confusion” about its method of recruiting beta testers:
“Huawei’s first priority is always the consumer and we encourage our customers to share their experiences with our devices in their own voice and through authentic conversation”
“We believe there is confusion around a recent social media post reaching out to recruit new beta testers”
“While there are reviews from beta testers with extensive knowledge of the product, they were in no way given monetary benefits for providing their honest opinions of the product”
“However, we are working to remove posts by beta testers where it isn’t disclosed they participated in the review program”.
Huawei claims its Best Buy reviews are from US beta testers who already had access to the phone.
The company has reportedly admitted there was internal miscommunication and its Social Media Manager mistakenly requested everyone in the Facebook group leave reviews to the Best Buy listing.
Individuals are invited to make their own minds up over the validity of claims – Huawei’s post to their Facebook group is below.
Despite not explicitly requesting a review, some commentators assert the majority of [108] comments on Best Buy’s website are in nature favourable ‘reviews’:
“Unbeatable smart phone [sic] of the year,” “loving this phone’s camera,” “great new flagship phone,” “great phone that puts Samsung to shame”
